Sunday, July 19, 2009
Astros 3
Dodgers 4
W: Troncoso | L: Hawkins | S: Broxton
astros.com
AP via Yahoo!
Game Zone
Despite the bats of Blum, Bourn and Lee, a fine outing by Ortiz and a 1-run lead in the 7th, the Astros managed to hand this one over to the Dodgers without much effort on their part.
The 3 runs for the Good Guys all came in the 3rd and began with a lead-off double by Bourn. The poor guy watched as Kepp popped out and Miggy lined hard but both to 1B. Lee came through, though with a sharp single to right that scored Bourn easily. Blum finished the scoring with a sweet shot to the right field stands and the Astros had a 3-0 lead.
Ortiz did a good job of holding down the top of the Dodgers’ order but damn that no. 8 hitter! Both of the runs Ortiz surrendered were on doubles by Officer Brad, scoring Kemp twice. He left after 6 with a 1-run lead.
The Astros had plenty of opportunies. 9 left on, baserunners in each of the first 5 innings but none of them got past second outside the 3rd inning.
Arias relieved Ortiz and proceeded to cough up the lead in ugly fashion. The lead-off single to Kemp wasn’t so bad and he fielded Ausmus’ sac bunt cleanly. But he muffed a catch covering 1st base on DeWitt’s grounder to Coste, allowing Kemp to get to 3rd. Then, he fielded Furcal’s chopper in front of the mound and inexplicably let the ball slip from his hand as he attempted to throw Kemp out at the plate. 3-3.
The winning run came from Kemp again, a solo shot in the 8th off of Hawk with 2 outs. Walk the 7th hitter who’s gotten on base every at-bat to get to the 8th hitter who’s driven him home twice? Fickle game, this baseball. Frustrating loss, that’s for sure.
Still, they took a split at the west leaders, which is…ok…I guess. Back home tomorrow for 3 against the central leaders.